Toro Rosso: It is going to be very tight between the midfield teams

Team and drivers review the first day of the 2013 Singapore Grand Prix weekend at Marina Bay Circuit, Round 13 of the 2013 Formula 1 world championship.

Jean-Eric Vergne (STR8-03)

First Practice Session Best lap: 1:49.348, pos. 9th, 23 laps

Second Practice Session Best lap: 1:46.429, pos. 12th, 33 laps

“We have some new things on the car here and we have spent today getting to understand how they work. I would say they show good potential for improvement. It all went smoothly, so now it’s the usual story of looking at all the data to find the best possible set-up for tomorrow. It’s going to be a long night for everyone, but I am confident that we can come up with something useful. As part of the usual tyre evaluation, I did a long run on the Supersoft and it felt pretty good and I was quite pleased with that. The main area we need to work on for tomorrow is the balance.”

Daniel Ricciardo (STR8-01)

First Practice Session Best lap: 1:50.757, pos. 18th, 16 laps

Second Practice Session Best lap: 1:46.406, pos. 11th, 34 laps

“In FP1 we found ourselves a little bit on the back foot, as I wasn’t really comfortable with what I had underneath me. We made some adjustments for FP2 and they produced what we expected, which is positive. Now we have to fine tune those adjustments and then we can have a good package. In high downforce configuration and high temperatures we have struggled a bit this year, but I feel the changes to the car should see us make a step forward, although in Formula 1 you always have to remember that the other teams are also developing their cars. Today, myself and Jean-Eric were just outside the top ten, but I’m confident we can move forward from there tomorrow and if we get into Q3, then we can look forward to a strong race on Sunday.”

Laurent Mekies (Head of Vehicle Performance): “We spent most of the morning taking a first look at updates on the aero and mechanical side we have introduced here. We were trying to understand exactly what results they produce, in our efforts to improve our slow speed package, which so far this year has not been as good as the one we run at medium to high speed tracks. We have acquired all the data we want, as both cars ran reliably throughout the three hours. I think it is going to be very tight between the midfield teams, on a track where it is always difficult to get the most out of the cars, because of its unusual characteristics. We will see a big progression from everyone tomorrow and we will also discover who got the most out of their package. That’s our challenge for tonight.”